JAMES Hogg claimed his first Showjumping Ireland National Grand Prix League victory this season when triumphant with Always On My Mind in the second leg at Portmore Equestrian Centre.

Coming at the end of the jump-off, Hogg had the measure of the course to secure the win in Saturday’s €5,000 feature class at the Portmore April Show, sponsored by Bluegrass Feeds.

Proving deceptively fast, Hogg took every risk to deliver a round that saw him come home nearly five seconds faster than his nearest rival when the clock stopped at 40.53 seconds.

Hogg commented: “He is very agile for a big horse, the shot back to the double came up great off the turn and I was able to move up to the last fence then. I want to praise the show, it’s a great big arena and they are improving the facilities all the time here.”

Hogg has been on form of late with the 10-year-old Always On My Mind having triumphed at the leg of the Connolly’s Red Mills Spring Tour at Mullingar as well as taking third place in the National Grand Prix league opener at Louth County.

A jubilant Hogg added: “We’re just on a roll at moment. He won in Mullingar, was placed last week at Louth County and he jumped fantastic today - you can’t get any better than that. He’s been really consistent and hopefully that continues for the rest of the season. I’ll do Barnadown next week and take it from there.”

Bred by Hogg’s father, Edgar, Always On My Mind is by Ard VDL Douglas out of the Andiamo-sired dam Sandiamo, also a capable performer under Hogg. Edgar Hogg, on hand to see the success said: “Always On My Mind was Sandiamo’s first foal by embryo transfer. We went to Larry Dunne and we were so happy with the job he did that we named the horse Larry in his honour.”

Sandiamo has also produced the six-year-old Beach Ball-sired Intuitive. Showing great promise Intuitive was a joint winner at the first round of the Six-Year-Old Horse Sport Ireland Irish Sporthorse Studbook Series and can be seen at Balmoral International in the Six and Seven-Year-Old Championship.

Resident course designer Rafael Suarez set the challenge for the 25 starting combinations which yielded a total of 14 clears through to the clocked round.

Liam O’Meara, triple handed in the timed decider, played pathfinder with Lincourt Lux. O’Meara put in a solid effort recording a faultless round in a time of 49.97 with the nine-year-old Lux-Z gelding which would stand for eventual sixth place.

This would prove to be his best effort when his other two mounts faulted at the final obstacle, a tall vertical of monochrome striped poles which accounted for a number of four faulters in the jump-off.

Mr. Coolcaum, coming in the middle of the pack, was the faster of the two, setting a blistering pace of 39.82, while O’Meara’s final attempt on the shortened and raised course as the final competitor saw him log 41.60 aboard Curraghgraigue Jack Take Flight.

Declan McEvoy was the first to take on O’Meara’s provisional lead with the Kannan-sired BLM Cosmopolitan Dandy and immediately upped the ante when stopping the clock at 48.84.This standard however didn’t hold for long with Philip Gaw shaving fractions off the time with Rocky Bond. Gaw came home with the 13-year-old son of Clover Echo in a time of 48.34.

Cavan International Grand Prix winners Jonathan Smyth and Charlton Clio showed what shortcuts were most beneficial when recording a very good time of 41.25 but paid the price for two exceptionally tight turn backs with eight faults.

Smyth had another chance to shine later in the jump-off with the nine-year-old Beach Ball-sired Ping Ball and made sure it counted. Taking a slightly more cautious route on his second time around, Smyth came home in a fault-free 45.02 which would secure the runner-up position.

William Greene made a solid Grand Prix debut with Aaron De Kalvarie incurring a single error at the midway point of the course in 44.74 to take a top-10 finish. Shannon Mackenzie was another to fall victim to the final fence but made it home in the faster time of 43.12 with the Lux Z-sired Castletara Lady Lux.

Charlene Clingan looked set to supply a double clear with the nine-year-old Luidam-sired Ardtana Flash Forward but faulted at the same obstacle as Mackenzie, Clingan completed in 48.29.

Kenneth Graham, last week’s winner at Louth County with George, made it through to the clocked round with two horses. The first of these, Lee Johnston’s Simply Javelin-sired stallion Democrat, picked up four faults in a time of 46.86 while Lyrical, also placed in Louth County the previous week, proved out of luck on this occasion with 12 faults in a time of 54.55.

Stephen McManus provided the only other double clear round on the day. Riding Gilbert Fletcher’s 11-year-old chestnut mare Red Bird Point, McManus ensured the yellow rosette when breaking the beams in 45.16.